Exercise in Yiu Xiu Park

I'm getting behind in my blog entries because internet connections are slow here. On Thursday we spent the afternoon sight-seeing in Guangzhou. We wandered through Yiu Xiu Park, which is a huge park near my hotel. It felt more like a zoo - cultivated greenery, large wide paths, and small areas everywhere to sit down. The crazy thing was that people were using the park for exercise, but it was exercise like you wouldn't see in the USA. I forget what this is called, but it was shown on the Amazing Race. You balance a dense ball on an elastic kind of racquet, and then manipulate the ball with the racquet. There was a large group practicing, along with a training class in the background.
This woman was practicing a fan dance, with a coach looking on.
This group of ladies was doing some kind of group stretching. I think maybe they were warming up for Tai Chi. There were people in groups, of 1, 2, and 10 all over the park doing this. And somewhere else in the park was a group singing, and music was piped in, and some people brought their own music.
This group was learning how to ballroom dance. I think it was about 85 degrees out. No music on this one. How fascinating!
And the most interesting thing of all was a game that reminded me of hacky sack from junior high school. There were groups of 5-8 people scattered throughout the park, standing in a circle. They were kicking something that looked like a hacky sack but with feathers on it (to help slow it down and direct it), trying to keep it up in the air. They were good at it, too!

I didn't post pictures of it, but there were also ping pong complexes (indoor and outdoor), lawn bowling, and people walking briskly to keep their heart rate elevated. What a beautiful corner of rest and recreation in a busy city!